Rosneft’s Suzunskoye field to start production this year

Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources signed a preliminary agreement with Rosneft last month for a potential partnership to develop the Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye fields located close to already-producing Vankor oil and gas field in the Siberian region.Sanjeev Choudhary | ETEnergyWorld | Updated: April 12, 2016, 16:03 IST

Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources signed a preliminary agreement with Rosneft last month for a potential partnership to develop the Suzunskoye, Tagulskoye and Lodochnoye fields located close to already-producing Vankor oil and gas field in the Siberian region.

Energy-hungry India has been in talks with sanctions-hit Russia to stitch multiple deals that can help secure oil and gas supplies for the country at a time oil prices have collapsed, making assets cheaper and readily available. The Indian state firms, nudged by the government, have been seeking producing assets that come with lower risk for the buyer.

Suzunskoye, with an initial recoverable reserve of 56 million metric tonne (mmt), will initiate production in 2016 while Tagulskoye will take a few more years, a company spokesperson said.

The operational drilling has just started at the Tagulskoye field that has an initial recoverable reserve of 286 mmt, the spokesperson said.

The company expects to build 39 well pads and 506 wells as part of the overall drilling project. The initial recoverable reserve at Lodochnoye field is 73 mmt. This field is several years away from production.

By comparison, the producing field of Vankor, where Indian state firms are in talks to buy nearly half the equity stake, has an initial recoverable reserve of 476 mmt. In 2015, Vankor produced 22 mmt of oil and 9.75 billion cubic meters of gas.

Rosneft aims to leverage the existing infrastructure at Vankor to process and transport oil and gas from the three new neighbouring fields.

A 99-km pipeline has already been laid to carry oil from Suzunskoye to Vankor. Rosneft also plans to build a 65-km pipeline to evacuate gas from Tagulskoye field to Vankor.

Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC) has purchased a 15% stake in Vankor and is in talks with Rosneft to raise it to 26%. The consortium of Oil India, Indian Oil and Bharat Petroresources have also entered into an initial agreement to buy 23.9% stake that will take the combined Indian stake to 49.9% in Vankor.